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Curtain call at the Smith Center in Las Vegas was like none other in Jeffrey Zicker’s short stage career.

“I looked up into the balcony and saw like 100 faces of people I knew,” said the University of Northern Colorado senior of that night in March. “It was a really good homecoming moment. I knew at that point I had come full circle. It almost brought me to tears.”

Thankfully for the event center maintenance crew, he stopped short of actually crying as it likely would have left a big green mess on stage to clean up. Zicker was in his hometown of Vegas as part of a whirlwind tour with the Broadway traveling production of “Shrek.” Zicker, 22, spent seven months with the company performing in 70 cities across 43 states. He portrayed a variety of characters nightly and also acted as an understudy to the big green guy himself, which included that night in Vegas before dozens of his family and friends and just two blocks from the high school from where he graduated three years earlier.

Zicker, who took a year off from his studies to tour with the production, ended up playing the main role more than 20 times during the tour. He said it was one of the best experiences ever.

“It’s one of my favorites,” he said about the role of Shrek. “He’s really an unlikely hero. He’s longing and waiting for acceptance, something we’ve all been through. To be able to play that on stage is amazing. You can be having the worst day possible, but by the end of the day you stand on stage and say, ‘I love my job.’ ”

Zicker first started down the path to theater when he was in middle school in Vegas. His mother made him take a theater class. He was hooked. For high school, he enrolled in the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Visual Arts and while there landed a role with the international cast of Hairspray, which brought him to Greeley for a performance.

“UNC came across my radar when I was here,” he said. “I fell in love with the school and the program.”

Zicker landed the role in Shrek last year while he was actually trying out for a role in the touring production of “Beauty and Beast,” he said.

He had gone to New York for a week-long workshop and met Bob Cline, who is considered one of the top casting agents among national touring Broadway productions. Zicker flew back and forth to New York seven times on callbacks for Beauty and the Beast, but never got a role.

“That was tough,” he said of a struggling college’s student’s budget. “$300 here, $300 there.”

But it was all worth it, as two weeks later, Cline called and said he had the perfect roles for Zicker in Shrek, if he was interested.

That was like asking a kid at Christmas if he is interested in Santa Claus. There was no asking him twice, Zicker put school on hold and transformed into one of the three pigs, Papa Ogre and one of Lord Farquaad’s guards almost instantly. He was also cast as the understudy for Shrek and Lord Farquaad, although he never played Farquaad.

“I have always been very driven,” he said. “I don’t take no for an answer, so I thought I might do well, but I never thought it would be this early on.”

Zicker hopes to act on Broadway as well as tour more, adding that being able to see the country at the same time doing something you love is the ultimate career. One thing is clear though, stage is where he will stay, saying there is nothing like a live performance.

“I will perform as long as the good Lord will let me,” he said. “This is the greatest art form on earth. Stage is my home. There is no comparing the energy of a live audience to working on a set.”

For the next few months, however, Zicker is hitting the books and absorbing as much as he can during his final year of school because as soon as the tassel is turned and the cap is tossed he will be on a plane back to New York.

“It’s really different being back,” he said. “I really missed UNC. I gained an appreciation for how amazing this program is. I want to learn as much as I can and then head back to the city.”

Sherrie Peif covers education for The Tribune. If you have an idea for a feature, contact Sherrie at (970) 392-5632, by email at speif@greeleytribune.com. Follow her on twitter @sherriepeif.